Becoming Nightstar
by nmrls
Summary: A mother tells her daughter the bedtime story of how Mar'i Grayson became Nightstar. This is set in Earth-16.
1. Chapter 1

**Mar'i Grayson**

**Chapter 1**

She was born the daughter of Richard "Dick" Grayson and Koriand'r. Her father was a normal human but at night took on the name Nightwing and fought crime. Her mother was the crown princess from an alien planet called Tameran who also went out under the name Starfire as crime fighter as well. Mar'i was born into a legacy of heroism and bravery, but her parents' desire was that she would not know about their hero identities and not follow in their path. Nevertheless her fate was sealed from the day she was born.

Mar'i was born on earth and at first everything seemed all right. However things did not stay that way. Someone with a grudge against Dick and Kor'i informed the Tameraneans that Kor'i had married a human and had his child. The Tameraneans were very livid; they did not believe in marrying out of their race and considered any child of mixed race to be flawed and faulty. As a result the second they heard about Mar'i the Tameraneans decided to come and see how damaged she was. Unfortunately that was the beginning of the end.

The Tameranean council decided that Mar'i could one day develop powers, so they commanded Kor'i that she had to separate herself and Mar'i from Dick so they would not be tainted any more by him. If they did not comply Mar'i and Dick would be killed and Kor'i would be forced to return to Tameran. Therefore to keep their family sort of to getter they complied with the council's demands. So Dick moved back to Bludhaven and Mar'i and Kor'i stayed at the alien embassy.

Over the next three and a half years things did not go so well for them. Mar'i was practically shunned except for when the Tameraneans and others were rude to her. When she was one it was the first time she was kidnapped and also the first time she got to see her father. At age three was when her aunt Komand'r came to visit. Mar'i thought that Komand'r would understand her because both of them were considered defective. However Mar'i was very mistaken. Komand'r hated Mar'i because Mar'i was still in line for the crown when she was not. So Komand'r started planning on a way to get Mar'i killed, the darkness in her heart was so strong she could not see that Mar'i felt the same hurting in her heart that she felt.

On the day Mar'i was supposed to be tested to see if she had powers, Komand'r attacked. She came down onto the ceremony and went straight for Mar'i. Mar'i saw her come down and saw that there was nothing sane left in her eyes even as a three year old child she saw the hurt and pain in her eyes. When Kor'i saw Komand'r coming she did what any mother would do she stood between the danger and her child. Kor'i tried reasoning with her but she was set on her course and could not be stopped. They fought, and in the end only one remained sadly it was not Kor'i.

"Mommy, Mommy, I thought this story was supposed to be about how Nightstar came to be so far you keep talking about other people" said the little girl with green eyes.

"Well, people's lives are affected by the people around them", responded the little girl's mother, "and Nightstar's story begins with those people."

The little girl nodded and her mother continued the story. "Now where was I?"


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"Now where was I, Oh I remember now, after Komand'r killed Kor'i she went after tiny Mar'i. She ran and ran through the now murky darkness of the night as she tried to get away from her uncontrollable aunt. Sadly Komand'r eventually cornered her and then started to attack. Mar'i fought with all her might but could not defend herself against a super powered alien. Then out of the darkness came three heroes who saved her. The three heroes did not have powers but they fought with strength and ferocity. They went back and forth with her aunt until Komand'r realized they were evenly matched so she fled. After the man who wore blue and had the nimbleness of a cat came and attend to Mar'i. She had been injured very badly and need medical help right away, but before Mar'i could thank her rescuers she passed out from the loss of blood.

When she woke up she was in a medical room in a cave underground. She had no idea where she was and was very frightened. She decided she needed to find a way out of the cave so she started looking around. As she came out of the room she saw the man in black, the man in red, and the man in blue who saved her. She heard them arguing and decided to listen from what she could see the man in black looked very angry. The man in black said while shaking with anger to the man in blue, 'Why did you not tell us about her! She almost died yesterday!' 'You think I don't realize that!', answered the man in Blue, at that moment she saw his shoulders start shaking and she realized he was crying, 'She is my daughter and the only way to keep her alive was to stay away and not tell anyone about her. If I had they would have killed her, I wanted to tell you about her but I loved her and her mother to much to risk their lives.' The man in red and black looked shocked they did not know how much Mar'i's life was in danger. 'I am so sorry Dick', replied the man in red, 'I did not know they were so stubborn that they would kill a child just because of her parents.' 'Yes they would', said the man that Mar'i now knew was called Dick, 'they said that if I stayed away from her and Kor'i and stopped tainted them with my presence they would keep them alive because she might one day develop powers.' 'But that did not stop Komand'r', responded the man in black. 'No, it did not' replied Dick. At that moment Mar'i realized that the man called Dick was her father, and that information shocked her quite a bit that she gasped. When she gasped the man turned around and noticed that she was there. As soon as she saw that they had seen her she turned around and ran. She ran through the cave until she got to a gapping chasm. The men were right behind and then Dick called and said 'It is okay we won't hurt you we promise.' 'You mean it', answered the scared little girl. Then Dick, her father walked forward and kneeled down in front of her and asked if she knew who he was. Mar'i replied 'Daddy is it really you.' Dick answered 'Yes, and I am sorry I was not there sooner to protect you.' Mar'i ran forward and hugged him and started crying saying, 'Daddy don't leave me, and don't let them hurt me anymore, please!' Mar'i looked at his face and saw tears on his face to as he said, 'I won't leave you ever again and I will always look after you.'

"So Mommy, she founded her Daddy" said the little girl again interrupting her mother's story.

"Yes she did" answered her mother.

"Well I am glad", responded the little girl, "I would hate not to have my Daddy."

"Me too, now can I continue the story" asked her mother.

"Yep!" the little girl excitedly answered. So her mother started again, "After that her father introduced her to her Uncle Tim and "Grandpa" Bruce. She was very excited to finally have relatives who loved her for who she was, but she was still kind of afraid of Bruce.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Over the next few months Mar'i got to be with the family she always wanted. She started living with her father in Bludhaven and visiting her extended family in Gotham. Her father and Gramps even taught her how to do some martial arts. They wanted her to be able to protect herself if Komand'r ever came back. The pain in her heart over losing her mother only showed up in her nightmares. One night when her nightmares where really bad she screamed so loud that it woke up her dad and he came running. When he got to her room he saw her screaming and struggling with her sheets. He could tell that she was still dreaming and having a horrible nightmare. He kept hearing her say 'No Aunty, leave Mommy alone! No go away! Why are you hurting me?' He ran over to her and held her as she started to wake up. As she started to cry he held her close until her hiccups and sobs stopped. Mar'i then asked her father, 'Daddy is there something wrong with me, how come mommy's family does not like me and why did Mommy leave us.' 'Your mother family just does not understand you', answered Dick, 'and Mommy did not leave us on purpose sometimes people leave us even if they don't want but that does not mean they did not love us. My parents had to leave me when I was little but I always knew they loved me. Your mother will always love you even though she cannot be here anymore. Besides when people leave us we meet new people who we would never would have met before. Like how I met Gramps.' 'So like how I met you, Gramps, Uncle Tim, and Alfred.' responded Mar'i. 'You know something that might make you feel better,' asked Dick, 'we can visit the circus I grew up on, it's in town would you like to go?' 'Y-e-s, and Daddy can I sleep in your bed tonight I am scared,' asked Mar'i. Dick said yes and carried her to bed.

The next day, they went to the circus. 'This is Haly's Traveling Circus' announced Dick and then Dick asked Mar'i to stay by the car because he had to talk to Mr. Haly alone. However after a few minutes Mar'i got bored and decided to look around and met a lady named Miranda who was taking care of the animals. She was very nice to Mar'i but a little worried that she was here all by herself. Right then though Dick came through wondering where Mar'i was. 'MAR'I, where are you, oh there you are don't run off like you scared me,' stated Dick. 'Sorry Daddy', she apologizes, 'I wanted to look around.' 'Wait, she's your daughter', asked a very surprised Miranda. 'Yes she is,' said a sheepish Dick. So all during that day Miranda and Mr. Haly showed Mar'i and Dick around the circus.

At one point while they were at the circus some music started playing and Mar'i started to dance. She twirled, spun and jumped. She moved with a lot of grace and agility for a three year old. Mr. Haly and Dick where quite amazed and so they started teaching her some basic acrobatics. She was very good at and the first time she felt really special and after her lesson in acrobatic Mr. Haly commented that she was definitely her daddy's daughter and that made her smile.

At the end of that day Mar'i felt better then she had in a long time. Also because of her trip to the circus she learned she had something even more in common with her father and was able to find and outlet that let her get her mind of her mother. Her acrobatics and dance helped her get better at martial arts and being able to defend herself.

"So that how she started training Mommy," asked the little girl. "Yes it is", responded her mother. "Wow who knew that a trip to the circus could start something so important", comment the girl. "The littlest of things can start something big Lilli" answered her mother, "well any way over the next two years she kept training and…


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Well over the next two years she kept training and living with her Dad. Those two years to her seemed like the best years of her life so far. However no matter how much she asked her father about meeting other hero's he refused. He said it was to keep her safe because the less people who knew about her and where she was the less chance there was for her to be taken by the Tameraneans or by her Aunt. Mar'i understood that but that did not mean she liked it.

A little bit after she turned five Dick disappeared, all Bruce would tell Mar'i is that he was wounded while as a hero and was somewhere recuperating. Still he would not tell Mar'i where exactly he was and why they could not visit him. This scared her very much so she decided to look for him. One day she overheard her Gramps and Uncle Tim talking about how Tim was going to check on Dick so she decided to follow him so Mar'i snuck into the back compartment of his motorcycle as he was leaving. Eventually they ended up in a town that she had never heard of before called Happy Harbor. As Tim was getting gas she snuck out of the motorcycle and started heading to the mountain because she heard Tim mention it. As she got to the mountain she saw a hatch open and someone leave but as she walked into the hatch the alarm went off. As soon as the alarm went off she started running through the mountain. The first person who tried to catch her was Impulse but because of her training she was able to beat him next, Blue Beetle found her and she beat him as well. The last person to find her was Beast Boy she beat him in less than seven minutes. Luckily for her they were the only ones in the mountain at the time. As she was looking around Tim arrived at the mountain and saw that Impulse, Beast Boy, and Blue Beetle were down. He went to go look for the intruder and was very surprised to find Mar'i looking around. She went to him and quite firmly asked him where her daddy was. He answered and said, 'How in the world did you get here and take done three members of the Team.' 'I hid in your motorcycle', she replied,' and then snuck out while you were getting gas, and taking down the heroes was easy, now where is Daddy.' 'Fine I will show him to you but promise to never do anything like this again', said Tim. So he took Mar'i to the med-bay. Dick was quite surprised to see Mar'i but also happy to see her. As she was talking to Dick, the Team came in and was quite amazed to realize that the little girl who took them down was Nightwing's daughter and that he even had a daughter.

During the rest of that day Mar'i finally got to meet the some other heroes and also their kids. The other heroes were actually not that shocked that Dick had a daughter they were kind of used to surprise kids by now. Tula the daughter of the first Tula and Garth was a surprise the team did not even know that Tula and Garth were married until after Tula died. Red Arrow just arrived one day with Lian. Wally and Artemis did not tell the team Artemis was pregnant until she was seven months along. So by the time Mar'i showed up the got over their shock very quick.

"Wow, Mommy I did not know so many Superheroes had kids." commented Lilli. "Yes but you see they that most of them kept their kids secret," replied her mother, "to protect them." "Mommy do you think you could teach me how to fight like Dick taught Mar'i," asked Lilli. "Sure baby but not know ok" said her Mother. So they agreed to start lessons tomorrow and Lilli's mother continued the story.


	5. Chapter 5

mother continued the story.

**Chapter 5**

"When Mar'i was eight she learned that her Gramps had a son two years older than her. She was very excited to meet him. She was best friends and practically a sister to Irey (the daughter of Wally and Artemis) and Lian (the daughter of Red Arrow and Cheshire) and thought that Bruce's son might make a good friend. Boy was she surprised when she met him. Damian was very rude to her and barely said three words to her. Mar'i let her temper get the better of her after Damian said one really rude comment and started attacking him. Damian was amazed to see that they were evenly matched and that their fight was for so long. Only after Bruce and Dick separated them did they stop fighting. After the fight Mar'i apologized for attack him, they started talking. 'So do you think you can teach me how to fight with a sword?' asked Mar'i. 'Only if you teach me some of your Tameranean moves,' responded Damian. That was the beginning of their strange friendship.

Since Mar'i learned about heroes she wanted to be a hero to but her father said no. However here father still let her train with her friends and soon Irey, Lian, Damian, and Mar'i became inseparable and the best at fighting and using their powers. When Irey and Damian were sidekicks Mar'i and Lian felt kind of left out because their fathers forbad them from being sidekicks until they were older, but they never took that out on their friends.

When Mar'i was twelve she started going on secret patrols with her friends. That stayed a secret until she was fourteen then her and her friends parents found out. Their parents were not happy. Mar'i and Lian were supposed to wait to be heroes until they were fifteen and Damian and Irey were supposed to always have an adult with them while being heroes. They all got grounded but that did not stop Mar'i and Damian. They wanted to prove themselves to their parents so they decided to go take down some of the biggest crime bosses in Gotham. Amazingly they did take down two of the biggest crime bosses before Bruce and Dick found them. They were still grounded but got their wish to be heroes with their friends on one condition that they had to join the team after their punishment was over.

"So they got to be heroes but how did Mar'i become Nightstar" Lilli asked. "Well", her mother answered, "I was getting there but you have to be patient, okay."


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Any way as I was saying I was getting to how Mar'i became Nightstar. So right after their punishment was over Mar'i and Damian went to find her a new outfit since she was to become a legitimate hero and after that they decided to go on a patrol through Bludhaven. At first it was a quite night but then someone attacked them.

The person who attacked was Ra's al Ghul; he wanted to hurt Damian for abandoning the Shadows. He attacked with no intention of keeping Mar'i alive all he wanted was Damian. He was ferocious and deadly as he was trying to attack them. However when Ra's started attacking Mar'i, Damian flipped and tried very hard to protect her from his evil grandfather. 'So Damian', coldly said Ra's as he held a limp Mar'i over the building, 'you seem to have feelings for this girl so it will make destroying her the more fun, but if you promise to return to the Shadows I will spare her life. So we have a deal?' 'Yes,' Damian answered, 'but you need to set her down on the rooftop and promise not to hurt her anymore.' As Ra's was taking Damian prisoner Mar'i started to come too as she saw Damian be hurt by Ra's she got angry and reacted in a way no one was expecting. She started floating in the air and then started to shoot Ra's with StarBolts, soon after Batman and Nightwing showed up and took care of Ra's good thing too because Mar'i passed out again after using her StarBolts for the first time.

When she woke up she was in the med-bay at in the mountain. There in the room waiting for her was Damian. 'Hey Damian,' she said weakly, 'did you stay in here and wait for me to wake up. So did we beat him?' 'Yes we did,' he replied, 'after you shot Ra's Bruce and Dick showed up and finished taking care of him but he got away but I don't think he will be back for a while.' 'So why were you going with Ra's?' Mar'i asked. 'He was going to kill you I could not let him do that, I care too much about you to let that happen', said Damian, 'well now that you have new costume, new powers, and we are starting the team next week are you finally going to choose a hero identity.' 'Well I guess I should', answered Mar'i, 'how about Nightstar in memory of my mom and a little bit of my dad.' 'That sounds perfect', said Damian.

So Mar'i and her friends joined the team and Nightstar became part of the superhero community. She had many adventures and helped save the world on some occasions." "Wow, that's cool mom," said Lilli, "but I want more stories." "Sorry Princess," her mother replied, "but it is past your bed time I will tell you more stories another night." "I want a story now." yelled Lilli. "Martha Lilli Wayne! You are going to bed do you want me to go get Daddy", said her mother. "Okay, tell Daddy I will be good and go to bed as long as he comes tuck me in, K", said Lilli. "Alright, I love you I will go get him," said her Mother. As she left the room she ran into her husband. "Hello is Lilli ready to for me to tuck her in, Mar'i," asked Lilli's father "Yes, she is Damian. Do you know what story she asked me to tell her tonight?" asked Mar'i. "Let me guess Nightstar." "Yep, it is her favorite", answered Mar'i, "and tomorrow I am going to tell her about out adventures on the team but this time you are going to help me. I am just glad she is sort of naïve and has not figured out we are the ones from the stories." "I am glad too, oh I here Ryan crying you go take care of him while I go tuck Lilli in." replied Damian. "Good Night I love you Mar'i." "I Love you to Damian, Night."

**The End **


	7. Author Note

I am going to do more stories about other characters and Mar'i and Damian's adventures on the team comment and tell me what to do next thanks.


End file.
